Big Sur

Non driving day in Big Sur today, hiking through the beautiful Redwood forests in the hills around the campsite.

LA to Big Sur on PCH Hwy 1

Well today the drive started in earnest.  Left LA at 9.30 am to avoid the worst of the traffic and headed north on 101 / 1, being the very scenic coastal highway.  And what a perfect day - Cool at about 10 deg C to start with, but clear blue skies, and it reached a high of 17 deg C, but still clear blue skies.  Just perfect topless driving weather !!

Car arrival in LA

Bit late posting due to local internet problems, but the ship arived inLong Beach early on Monday 5th March.  Louise, who I am staying with, kindly ran me down to Long Beach about an hour south of where they live, but about 5 minutes before we got there the shipping agent rang and said "Don't bother to go to the docks today Giles, they are still unloading" !

Elise Run in LA

Wow !!  What a fantastic morning !  Picked up by Andy in his red car at 8 am, we went half an hour down the freeway on a magnificent Southern California morning to meet up with some others for a morning run.

In L.A.

Well here we are in LA, and everything going accordng to plan - Apart from the fact that Elsie doesn't arrive till Monday 5th. 

Documentation

I thought it might be worthwhile to just document the paperwork that I have done in order to get approval to ship the car to the USA, so that if any one else ever tries to do it, it is available.  Reason is that just a couple of weeks ago I was asked to provide a letter of Approval from the US EPA, and I had never heard of this letter, nor did I know where to get it or what information was required as it is hard to find out.  Luckily Ian Wilson in NZ who brought his S1 back from Europe via the USA a few years ago was able to help me at very short notice, and something that for a moment I thought could have been a trip-stopper turn out to be just a minor hiccup along the way !!!   Big thanks, Ian !!

Spare Parts

The final list of suitable spare parts has been one I have pondered over for more than a year now. I think my biggest concern is punctures or a broken windscreen rather than a breakdown. Treated right, the little car is pretty reliable so I do not anticipate major problems.   

Changes !!

Well everything changed soon after my last post !   At the last minute, just a couple of days before the ship was due to sail, my shipping agents called me and told me that the ship MV Figaro was no longer calling at Los Angeles !! Surprised a lot of people because the Korea and Japan sector to LA is usually one of the busiest ones for these vessels, carrying Hyundais and Kias from Korea and Toyotas etc from Japan to the US market. But for some reason, it isn't going to LA this time, so at the last minute we had to change to a different vessel, Taiko, Voyage 205.

Those who made it possible

People to whom I owe thanks :-

Australia Leaving

So yesterday we took Elsie to the Brisbane docks the required 5 days before the ship's sailing date, and left her there - Hopefully in good hands.